Forget running, I've found my new favourite form of exercise

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The first thing to say about paddleboarding is that people always make it look really easy. The second thing to say about paddleboarding is that it is actually really, really hard... or at least it is if you are shaped like a weeble, as I am. And the third thing to say about paddleboarding is that despite all of this – the gargantuan effort required by me to get upright on one, the huge humiliation it entailed – I would still take it as a form of exercise right now over almost anything else: running tediously up and down my road; cycling around the same tiny park; doing bloody PE with Joe Wicks in my living room.

How I long to be back on a paddleboard in the Turks and Caicos, the salt and the sea on my skin and my daughter howling with laughter as I fall once more into the ocean!

I was aware – even before coronavirus – that I was insanely lucky to be learning to paddleboard in the Turks and Caicos as opposed to say, the Thames, which is where my cousin Jemma learnt it, during the winter of 2018. The Turks and Caicos is a group of 40 Caribbean islands, and though it is a British Overseas Territory, it is favoured mostly by Americans, lured by short journey times to white sandy beaches and turquoise waters.

The Turks and Caicos are exactly as you would imagine a luxury beach getaway to be depicted in a Hollywood film, as was the hotel we were staying in, Wymara Resort at the deserted end of Grace Bay (frequently voted one of the best beaches in the world). Small, intimate and incredibly slick, this is a beach resort where the sun loungers come with a service button, and the massages should come with a warning about inducing a state of bliss.

Our room came complete with a balcony the size of our garden in London, where we could watch the sun set or, even better for my excited daughter, a huge storm roll in. We had our own kitchen, which we didn’t use, because why would you when there is fresh tuna ceviche, fried Brussels sprouts and creamed spicy sweetcorn and leek? But my favourite bit, being a mum, was the laundry room next to the bathroom, which meant I could return home with absolutely zero washing.

The Wymara Resort at Grace BayCredit:
steve passmore

I wasn’t here to do laundry, though, despite it sometimes feeling like my life’s true vocation. No, I was here to learn to paddleboard, with the help of the resort’s friendly instructor, Jill, a New Yorker who had long ago made these islands her home.

“It’s the best place in the world!” she beamed, as we walked to the resort’s custom-made paddleboards. The Atlantic that lapped the beach was as still as a pond, which Jill said would help us when it came to getting our balance. But while that may have been true for my sprightly daughter Edie, the same couldn’t be said for me. No matter what I did, I could not get off my knees and on to my feet. I was like an old dog, panting on all fours, hoping I wasn’t putting my fellow holidaymakers on the beach off their cocktails.

Jill decided that I might be better off in the mangroves up the beach, which were less crowded and might lead to me feeling slightly less self-conscious. We drove across the island and arrived in an area that was like something out of an Ernest Hemingway novel, all glorious keys and conch shells. The water was still, and the mangroves stunned.

Grace Bay, a fine place to learnCredit:
getty

We climbed on to our boards and I watched, gobsmacked, as baby nurse sharks swam underneath. These mangroves are the lungs of the island, a natural shelter for marine animals, and I felt so relaxed that I found the ability to stand up on my paddleboard. Edie and Jill were too engrossed in the flora and fauna to notice (Edie counted more than 100 turtles), but I was soon paddling around like a pro.

I wish I could describe the feeling – the combination of the pride I felt at mastering something really hard, mixed with the beauty of the landscape. That is one of the greatest things about travel, isn’t it? The sense that you are doing the impossible in a place that seems impossible. And as I attempt to work out in my cramped living room, I think back to the mangroves in the Turks and Caicos, and the moment I stood up on my paddleboard, and for a short while, I am there. Wobbling above the crystal-clear water, watching a stingray glide past, with not a care in the world.

How to book

Turquoise Holidays (01494 678400; turquoiseholidays co.uk) offers seven nights in a Garden Terrace Studio at Wymara Resort & Villas from £2,299 per person, including breakfast and international flights, based on two people sharing.